Edgar: The ‘C’ in UFC stands for ‘Conor’
Frankie Edgar: “I’m even more pissed that Dana’s insinuating that I ‘refused’ to take this fight, which is bullsh*t…Just because they asked me doesn’t mean they were going to give it to me.”
During his appearance to announce Nate Diaz as a replacement to fight Conor McGregor at UFC 196, Dana White stated that two guys, Jose Aldo and Frankie Edgar had refused the opportunity to fight.
Edgar however denied that claim today and is not happy about the allegation. Edgar admits that he did have to turn down the fight, but not that he refused due to an reason except a legitimate injury:
“I’m even more pissed that Dana’s insinuating that I ‘refused’ to take this fight, which is bullsh*t,” he said. “Just because they asked me doesn’t mean they were going to give it to me because guess what, in July they asked me to take the [UFC 189] fight on 15 day’s notice, which of course I accepted, and I still didn’t get it.
“I have a feeling that if I had said ‘yes,’ if Ali had texted back ‘yes,’ that fight still would have went to Nate Diaz. I think Nate Diaz was the fight they were trying to make since the beginning. From what I hear they contacted Nate even before they contacted me. But now Dana wants to go around saying that I ‘refused ‘to take this fight, and I don’t know if he’s going to try to use it against me in the future when another opportunity comes up where I can fight for the belt, and he’s going to say, ‘well, you had your opportunity and you said no.’”